The Opelousas courier., 1887-11-26

our beloved State at issue, well might we
laugh ut the charge. Think of it, my fellow
citizensl You WHO bearded Grant at the
guns and Winchester rifles, backed by the
moral support of the whole Federal govern
menti To-day you are. accused in the face of
the American people with craven submission
. But SSo say a. son son a9 II tRese 'n's'eS''' ,6
sLANDERERs OF THE FAIR NAME OF THE STATE,
q great many people. won't vote: the best
people refuse to give the necessary time and
attention to politics. Now, fellow-citiZens,
this argument strikes at the very root ofsour
republican institutions. Iwant no Return
We protested for years against the counting
Of votes which had not gone into the ballot
boz, n am consistent. l protest against
however rich he may be, however good he
may be, however pure and noble he may be,
has any right to expect his influence to be felt
or considered in q republic ii he Is too good,
every citizen in a republic should be com
PEELED to vote, under the se7erestof penalties,
OF every election, but until such a law is
passed / believe in ignoring every, vote not
cast. Whenever I believe differently I shall
also believe that a republic is a farce and q
failure, and that the day for O Cesar or q
Cromwell has arrived.
And now, fellow-citizens, who is this man,
Samuel d. McEnery, whoEa We present for
giftq Ihave been told that he served in an
humble rank as a soldier OF that same cause
go dear to us all, wherein his distinguished
opponent was so terribly manned; that he
ever failed in any Of the duties of a soldier
has, I believe, never been claimed. | first
met him at a time and under circumstance
which ! shall never forget. A committee of
the United States Senate was sitting in New
Orleans during the Christmas holidays of
1876, examining into the conduct of the
elections, that fail, at which Francis T.
Nichols had been elected Governor of LOU
isiana. Witnesses had been summoned from
and from Morehotlse, from the two Fellcl-
anas, and from many other parts Of the
State. The State Centra&Committee of the
Democratic party requested me, as well as
assist in conducting that investigation on
behalf of the Democratic party. To me and
to two Others was assigned the case of
0uachita and Morehouse. 1t WAS during
tending to form 3 very rapid intimacy that [
first met the modest and retiring gentleman
who led the movement whereby those two
parishes had been
RESCUED FROM OPPRESSION.
The details of the campaign nave mostly
faded from my niind. / merely recall its
general features-the months Of anxiety,
during which the white people In those par
ishes were In hourly fear OF. that most terri
Bile of calamities-a servile Instruction; the
SOA1o LIZ tGOb So - 0S1SS HsAS
by which he led the people to victory. After
those sad closing days of 1876, / saw and
heard but little OF Gov. McEnery until he
was nominated by the convention as Lieu
tenant Governor in 1879. He was given the
second place or the ticket as the Representa-
tive of tlat section OF the party which had
been defeated in the ~gubernatorial contest.
when factions were SO bitter that one body Of
Democrats recoiled from contact with an
other as from a leper. When Coy. McEnery
was. soon after called to the gubernatorlal
chair by the death of Gov. Witt, he exhib-
rarely met in public life and declined to re-
woke any of the appointments made by his
predecessor, except where good cause was
shown to induce him to take such action.
who had been his political friends, but from
that date to this he has administered the
government with an. energy and q zeal
the aaice chronicles mnie ens Il the n1' s STATE oe He uR Ras
been identified with every move for her
progress and improvement. He has never
hesitated to act and to act boldly whenever
cd aston required. In 1883 he ST. eteh | his
allahal lands from overflow. He was even
ceIuifSed for an arbitrary exert Use of p1Wer
b~yhmartain section Of the parsy-a censure
n~otbmpated in 1887, because his conduct
vase d fea and approved blythe Democratic
parsrpd1d the people IN 1884. He did not
h~ealiEiapne moment TO order strong bodies
of IcanEa to the seat OF the late strikes in the
s~ugSf+astricts of this State, at
THE VERY FIRST SIGN OF RoUBLE.
He has been censured for this, accused Of
overrating the danger, and seeking theatrical
effect. All, my friends! that is fine talk for
editors and politicians removed to a safe dis
tance from the trouble; but ask the reform
bonnie. the lives Of whose wives and chill
dren were at stake, whether this action was
too prompt.
There is and ever has been q section of the
Democratic party unwilling to believe that
there was any good in him. In 1883 he was
accused of exceeding his powers III the mat
ter o. building leyees, and he was held re-
sponsible for a contract in reference to the
State lands entered into By his predecessor,
and over which he had no more control han
you or /. The people answered these charges
by o triumphant yindication at the polls in
1854, and they have not been repeated in
1887. But II has been interesting to note
the lines of attack pursued during the.pres-
ent campaign. First came the charge that
he was guilty of what wa.s denominated
.personalisn. = that. is to say thar he had
appointed none but his friends to office. and
that those friends were corrupt and incorl-
-petent-nota3ly SO, the police jurors. When
the opposition were met upon this ground,
and when particulars were, asked for. the
cut that the evil complained of either did not
exist in their own paTish. but in sorne other
one. or else that the objectionable nominal
t1ons had been approved andr recommended
by the Observation-Disclosures in the par
ish; and finally, after the whole list had been
gone over, there was at least one result OF
that examination of which all L~onisianians
may well be proud, and that was the dis
coyery that the parish finances and the
parish. governments were In a higher state of
efficiency to-day b they nave ever been
since the war, and that in the few cases
where exceptions have been noted, the par
hsans Of the reform element have had as
great a share In the perish administration as
the administration leaders. When driven
from their attack lpon the parish govern
Strong, forgetting that he had been elected
by the people, and not appointed by the
Governor, and utterly blinded by partisan
malice to the fact that a trial and conviction
had followed the defalcation.
Next came an attack on certain alleged de-
faulting sheritfs, but this was abandoned
when some showed settlements, and others,
like you own sheriff, 4 believe, ave rather
tart denials, and ne1t, and last, let us hope.
came
THE ! TERM CAB
Upon this subject the energetic young
Congressman from the Shreveport district
complied much learning, but the resort to
statistics was unfortunate. Senator Sukher-
lin, of De Soto, vert to the books and showed
that one Governor In one of the States served
eleven terms and others had served three,
four and FIVE times. I confess that / have
racy, because the whole tIIird term argument
has seemed to me no utterly puerile and fai-
lacious. The objections i the reelection Of
q President to q third term are well ground
ed. The President of this great country
might, by perpetuating his power, finally be-
come q dictator or an emperor: but who fears
for one moment that q Governor can ever
crush the liberties of the people7 As well
might you suppose that q justice of the peace
could perpetuate his power without the coTl-
sent Of the people as To suppose that 8 Gov
erner could do so.
When finally driven from al specific at
tachs upon the administration by successful
refuge IN the safety Of generalization, and
we hear iii to-day from all the stulnps in the
State clamorinH for Reform reform re-
for1nfp Reform og that, my f~rienilEg III the
edge, what is there to- reform in the, State
naYarttnien5 Of IaaTrigiana9 That eaIaa tafi-